Hainesport school a model for library education, officials say

Monday

Hainesport School's library was praised by state officials for its initiative to make sure students have library cards and know how to use their public libraries.

HAINESPORT — A monthlong campaign in New Jersey to get families to sign up for library cards is reaching its last week. But in Hainesport, few kids need the reminder. Access to a library card at age 9 is already part of their school library's curriculum.

This year, the New Jersey State Library, the Department of Education and the state Library Association launched a campaign called “Libraries = Success,” with the goal of encouraging students to sign up for their very own library card. As part of the initiative, Hainesport Township School’s library hosted representatives from the state and library association on Friday afternoon.

Officials chose the school library at Hainesport’s fifth- through eighth-grade school because of a rare program the school district has, in which their library is directly partnered with the Burlington County Library System, granting kids access to hundreds of books from public branch libraries. The school serves about 700 students.

Library Media Specialist Tricina Beebe said she tries to make the school library into a real world experience, incorporating elements like a self check-out scanner that make it feel like a public library. And starting in the fourth grade, every student gets a library card and starts learning about how to access databases.

“When the ‘Libraries = Success’ campaign came out, we thought, ‘This is perfect. We already do this,’” Beebe said. “They’re using our school as an exemplary school to showcase across the state.

“Burlington County and Hainesport have had a strong relationship for a few years now,” she added. “We start to develop our students at the fourth-grade level with a pilot program where they’d get a library card.”

The county library system also has “STEM kits” that it lends to school libraries, teaching students about robotics, building with Legos and 3-D printing designs. When officials visited Friday, students at Hainesport were printing a miniature statue of Marvel Comics’ Groot and building miniature robots that could wheel across a table. The library has designated tables, a section called a “makers’ space,” for working on creative projects, Beebe said.

“I want our students to recognize that the library is more than print. It’s all types of informational resources,” Beebe said. "We want to expose them to different lifelong learning options and take it to the next level.”

Tiffany McClary, communications director at the New Jersey State Library, said she encourages students to take advantage of their local libraries, and that adults who haven’t been there in a while should “rediscover” them. She wants residents to be aware of programs their libraries might offer, such as “Fresh Start at Your Library,” a recently developed reentry program for citizens returning from prison.

“It’s not your grandma’s library anymore,” she said Friday. “There’s so much the library offers. We have programs for business owners and entrepreneurs, we help people look for jobs or further their careers.”

Teachers and librarians agreed that libraries, in addition to their educational importance, serve as a safe space for anyone to find respite.

“There’s no stigma with walking into the doors of a library,” said Pat Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association.

Tumulty said she hopes other schools will look to Hainesport as a model for what library education looks like. She said there’s also an initiative going on in Newark to make sure every first-grader gets a library card.

“It’s fabulous. This whole campaign of working with public libraries and school libraries is phenomenal,” she said. “One of our goals is to demonstrate that this could be in every school district."

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